The Choice
by sandys18
Summary: One Shot- Oliver has to make a choice between two women he cares for.


**A/N: **This oneshot is about Oliver making a choice between two women he cares for. Hope you enjoy reading it. Sorry for all the grammar and spelling mistakes.

Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me.

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**_The Choice_**

_"It's time for you to choose!" Slade Wilson roared._

_"I can't!" Oliver yelled back as he tried to stand on his feet. Whatever poison Slade had shot him with had made him completely numb. He found it difficult to even keep his head up._

_"You have to or they both die!" Slade pointed his gun at both women held bound to the two columns in the corner of the old warehouse._

_"Don't do this! We were friends once." Oliver begged looking at the two women. They were both gagged yet their eyes told him so many things, asked him so many things._

_He truly didn't want to choose between them. One was his past and one was his present and possibly his future._

_"Yes we were. Once." Slade replied bitterly as he walked to his left where Felicity was. "And that's what Shado thought too until you chose your girlfriend's sister instead of her." Slade slowly ran the barrel of the gun upon Felicity's face._

_Oliver could feel his blood boil as he watched Felicity squirm when the cold gun ran on her skin. "I didn't choose anyone Slade! Ivo gave me a choice and when I didn't make one, he was going to kill them both. He pointed the gun at Sara and I just reacted. You have to believe me!" The sound of Ivo's gun fire at Shado resonated in his ear and he could do nothing but cringe at the memory._

_"You've not given me any reasons to believe you. You betrayed our friendship. And you may have forgotten what you did, but I haven't." He took off the eye patch that covered the scar which marked the demise of their friendship. "You shot an arrow through my eye just to save Sara, the woman that betrayed us both. You tried to save her, because you felt guilty that you were the one who was responsible for her ending up in that wretched island." He slowly stepped towards to the pillar where Laurel Lance was. "Because she was your girlfriend's sister!" He held her face up by her chin, "Just because you thought you could redeem yourself of your sins by saving her one more time. You hoped that Laurel here would forgive you for cheating on her with her own sister if you just kept her alive."_

_"No!" Oliver managed to stand up for a moment, but he soon collapsed back to the floor. "I shot an arrow through your eye to stop you from becoming the monster you are today! But obviously it hadn't work!" He croaked glaring up at the one eyed man, "You were seeking vengeance from people that had nothing to do with Shado's death. You were trying to kill someone who was just trying to survive just like you and I." Oliver's mind went back to their last battle on the island. His mind went back to the moment he realized that Slade was becoming someone other than the man he once looked up to._

_ He remembered pulling an arrow through his bow and letting it soar through the sky towards his friend. "You were killing people in Shado's name and I don't think she would have wanted that."_

_Slade let go of Laurel and stepped forward towards him. "Isn't that what you are doing too Oliver? Isn't that what you have been doing wearing Shado's hood? Killing people?" Slade kicked him hard on the gut._

_Oliver coiled in pain, "When… when I came back from the island I had nothing but a list full of names. I did what I thought I was meant to do. But there are people in this world like Shado, who can see you for what you can be… they help you to see the good in yourself." Oliver's stare fell upon his blonde IT girl, who always told him that he could be more than just a vigilante._

_Even with Oliver's blurred vision he could see tears run down her cheeks as she stared back at him. "I'm not the Vigilante anymore. I wear that hood to honor Shado. Because she too believed I can be more than who I was…"_

_"So I see you've made your choice then. You want the blonde alive?" Slade glanced over at Felicity as though he had read what was written in his heart._

_"No!" He knew his choice. In his mind there was only one choice, yet he just didn't want to make it and be responsible for another death. Certainly, not for the death of his first love._

_"Then the brunette? You want her alive don't you?" Slade's stare fell upon Laurel. "Do you still carry that picture of her in your pocket or have you replaced it with someone else's?" Mocked Slade._

_His hands balled into fists._ "_No!" He wanted to yell, but he was so weak barely any sound escaped._

_"Then the brunette it is! And your blonde friend dies!" Slade strolled closer to the concrete pillars and pointed his gun at Felicity._

_Felicity nodded accepting her fate. Her eyes forgave Oliver sincerely, thinking he had made his choice._

_ She closed her eyes, expecting the bullet to pierce through her heart._

_"No! Stop! I'm sorry Laurel!" He cried trying not to meet the eyes of the woman he once cared for. He was betraying her again, but there was nothing else to do. He was not going to make the same mistake as he had done with Shado._

_He had never chosen for Shado to die, but he had never chosen for her to live either. That indecision pestered him so terribly and he regretted it every day. "I'm so sorry. I want her alive… I choose her." He claimed. He knew the guilt of letting Laurel die would always follow him. However he was certain if he didn't pick Felicity, every moment he lived, every time he breathed, his guilt would eat him up in a way nothing else would. "I choose Felicity!" He stated sternly._

_Felicity's eyes snapped opened at his words. She looked at him surprised and overwhelmed._

_He knew the moment her eyes met his he had made the right choice. At that moment he realized that he loved her more than he had ever loved anyone._

_"Just as I thought… I knew there had to be a good reason as to why you killed the count with three Arrows when you could have done the job with one. I knew she meant something to you. I just wanted to know to what extent." Slade kept his gun pointed at Felicity and he looked as though he was about to pull the trigger. "I simply wanted to make sure I was about to kill the right person."_

_"What are you doing? I said I choose to save her!" Oliver slowly crawled towards Slade._

_ "I had almost forgotten how naïve you could be." Slade's haughty laugh echoed within the room, "Did you really think I'm going to let you leave with her? Did you really think I would let you live a happy life with the woman you love, when the woman I loved died because of you?"_

_"No!" Oliver shouted and he somehow managed to find the strength to get to his feet._

_He started to run towards Slade. Yet before he could reach him he had already pulled the trigger. "No! Felicity!" ._

"Oliver, wake up! You're having a nightmare," Said her angelic voice.

He opened his eyes and saw her lying on the bed next to him. She was staring at him with her blue eyes and her blonde hair framing her worried face. "Felicity?" He called her.

"Oliver, are you OK?" She ran her hand through his hair and it was then he realized he wasn't dreaming.

"I am now…" He smiled at her and laid a soft kiss on her lips.

"Was it the same nightmare?" She asked placing her head upon his chest.

"Yes." He held onto her tightly.

She sighed. "I'm here Oliver… "

"But… what if Sara and Diggle hadn't come at that moment? I should have known Slade would have wanted to kill the one I loved? I almost lost you because I didn't think that far ahead," He muttered thinking about the incident that happened five years ago.

Felicity began to draw patterns on his chest with her finger and like always, her touch calmed him.

"You're not a mind reader Oliver. How could you have known what Slade was planning to do? Even then, what could you have done? Let Laurel die believing something which is not true and let me live with a broken heart?"

He was silent. If he had to make that choice again knowing that Slade was about to kill his love, he was inclined to let her believe he didn't love her than to see her die. He was sure she would never accept that answer.

"Mommy?" A little blonde head popped in through the doorway.

"What's wrong honey?" Felicity sat up, opening her arms so that their four year old daughter could fly in to them.

The little girl ran in and jumped into her mother's arms. She then wrapped her little arms around her.

"Did you have a nightmare just like daddy?" Oliver asked sitting up.

"Daddy saw a nightmare too?" his daughter looked at him surprised.

"Yeah," He answered and she hopped into his arms possibly wanting to hear what happened in his nightmare.

Felicity leaned back and just watched them talk with a smile on her face.

"Daddy was scared too?" His little daughter have already forgotten her own nightmare and just like her mom she seemed worried over him more than anything.

"Yeah, luckily your mom was here…" Oliver smiled glancing at his wife.

"You two are such scary cats." Felicity laughed at the father and daughter.

"We're not!" The little girl claimed frowning at her mother.

Felicity too adorned a playful frown to match the little girl's.

Oliver couldn't help but grin at the uncanny the resemblance between mother and daughter. "So Emma, what did you see in your nightmare?"

"I saw a giant bunny. He was coming after me." Emma shuddered, just thinking about the nightmare.

"Oliver, I told you not to let her watch that movie with that stupid giant bunny!" Felicity swat on his arm.

"Ow!" Oliver yelped. "The DVD cover said it's rated 'G'!" He replied only to see his wife's face go red in anger.

"What did you see daddy?" Emma turned his face around by his chin.

"Me?" Oliver raised his brows and pointed at himself.

Emma nodded in reply.

"I saw a giant bunny going after mommy," He explained.

Emma's eyes went wide surprised to hear that they both had dreamt of a giant bunny. "Did you save her?"

"Of course I did…" Oliver couldn't say anything but that as he looked into his daughter's eyes.

"Good! Because she's the bestest mommy in the world!" Emma went to sit on her mother's lap.

Felicity beamed as she placed a kiss on Emma's forehead.

"She is the _bestest_." Oliver agreed moving closer to them.

"And daddy next time, will you come and save me from that bunny too?" Emma snuggled into Felicity.

"I will… always…" He smiled gazing at the two people who he loved most in the world.

Suddenly, the last words Slade had said as he ran away that dreaded night began to ring in his head. _"It's not over yet Oliver… My time will come again! And you… you will have to make a choice again…"_

Then it dawned on him that one day he would maybe asked to make a far worse choice.

Felicity looked to have read his mind. She instantly knew what was troubling him. He didn't even want to think about what he would do, who he would choose.

However, Felicity's eyes convinced him there was only one choice there to make and she would be fine with it.

Oliver looked at their daughter cuddled up in her mother's arms. He grudgingly accepted that Felicity was right.

His only hope was that Slade or anyone else would never ask him to make that kind of choice.


End file.
